


The Cold

by justjoy



Series: In The Shoes Of Hitsugaya [2]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Collateral Damage, Common Cold, Gen, Humour/Crack, In which woe is Hitsugaya, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-19
Updated: 2010-05-19
Packaged: 2017-11-07 09:11:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/429331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justjoy/pseuds/justjoy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hitsugaya Toushirou: taichou of the 10th Division, youngest shinigami to achieve bankai, embodiment of a heavenly guardian. But what happens when he deals with real life? A couple of oneshots detailing the everyday life of everyone's favourite child prodigy.</p><p>[snapshot, two: In which foot meets mouth, offence is taken, and chaos ensues.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Cold

Hitsugaya cursed his luck bitterly as he glared at the two arrancar that stood before him, zanpakutou drawn.

They were right at the centre of some town in the Real World. Which meant that there were people constantly walking by, oblivious to the fight that was going on in their midst.

Not for the first time, the taichou wondered why they had chosen to attack him _here_ , of all places. Why couldn't they have come after him when he was at the outskirts of the town? Or, at the very least, yesterday, when he had been in Karakura Town to see Urahara?

 _Oh, no,_ Hitsugaya answered himself sardonically, scanning his surroundings again. _They just_ had _to choose the most inconvenient place to attack in, didn't they?_

He knew full well that Hyourinmaru, given the chance, could easily destroy the pair of arrancar within the blink of an eye. But he was reluctant to use his shikai, considering where they were and all. Using it even under the power limiter _and_ with extremely tight control on Hitsugaya's part would definitely mean freezing anything within a metre of where he stood.

Or even further. So he had been fighting with Hyourinmaru in its sealed state. Considering that there were _two_ arrancar fighting only one person, namely a certain Hitsugaya Toushirou... the fact that he had only sustained two cuts – one on each shoulder, and not even deep ones at that – while both of them were injured and obviously winded spoke volumes about their abilities.

"Or, in this case, lack thereof," Hitsugaya muttered to himself.

The arrancar to his left sniggered. "What's that you said? I didn't catch it." He cocked his head to the side, as if sizing his opponent up. "Giving up already? Are you sure you're a taichou? You stole some captain's haori, didn't you, eh, _shorty_?"

A sudden roaring in Hitsugaya's ears covered the arrancar's hysterical laughter.

Unfortunately – for him, at least – the arrancar failed to notice the green eyes that narrowed in a manner that would have prompted almost all of the Gotei 13 to beg for mercy before running away as far as they could get.

_He. Called. Me._

The owner of the glare ground his teeth, gripping his zanpakutou with all the strength in his ten fingers.

_SHORTY._

A turquoise aura burst to life around the infuriated taichou, becoming steadily brighter with every passing second. The arrancar's laughter stopped abruptly.

"Sit upon the frozen heavens, Hyorinma – _achoo!_ "

Hitsugaya sneezed.

The reiatsu, which had been steadily building up around him for the last five minutes, shot out towards the two arrancar.

By the time Hitsugaya managed to curb his sneezing, everything between him and the pair of arrancar was covered with a thick layer of ice that nearly came up to his knees. The arrancar didn't even have a hope of breaking free.

As Hitsugaya took the memory replacer out of his pocket, he wondered, very briefly, how he was going to explain this to Yamamoto-soutaichou, Soifon-taichou, and Unohana-taichou.

It was times like this when Hitsugaya was really, _really_ glad to be the head of his division. Otherwise, he would have _four_ people to report to instead.

He shuddered at the mere thought of trying to do _that_.

* * *

_[Three Days Later...]_

Fourth Division. Argh.

If there was a place that the taichou of the Tenth Division detested more, he couldn't think of it.

There were many things he disliked about the place, since being there meant he was a patient, which entailed having to stay still, and not being able to do _anything_ at all. In addition, he always ended up bargaining with Unohana-taichou while worrying about how the division was faring under his fukutaichou. Also, it prevented him from training with his zanpakutou, an arrangement which both Hitsugaya and Hyourinmaru detested, though for different reasons.

But most of all, Hitsugaya hated the annoyingly white ceiling.

As far as he was concerned, the ceiling, which he now glared at, was unique to the Fourth Division headquarters. In fact, Hitsugaya suspected that it was meant to completely bore patients out of their minds, thus ensuring that they would be more susceptible to whatever treatment was administered on them. That was why it – the ceiling, that is – was covered in a layer of ice that glittered in the sunlight that filtered in through the window. One had to admit that it _did_ look nicer than the sterile white, which, somehow, managed to be whiter than Hitsugaya's already pale hair.

At least, that was what he told himself.

The truth, however much Hitsugaya wanted to deny it, was that the ice had formed quite unintentionally. Of course, the truth was also why Unohana-taichou had insisted on keeping him here even after his wounds had healed.

_I knew it. I shouldn't have told Unohana-taichou about my cold. Damn it._

The taichouof the Fourth Division had looked at Hitsugaya very seriously as he finally, and clearly unwillingly, explained why everything within a _ten-mile radius_ of where he had been was covered in a thick layer of ice. She had then proceeded, to Matsumoto's amusement and Hitsugaya's everlasting horror, to dump him in this room so that he could "recover", as she had put it.

He had been here ever since.

Actually, now that Hitsugaya thought about it, ten miles was quite a long distance, especially since it had been accidental, and he was only using shikai with a power limiter on him. He wondered how the effect would have differed if he hadn't sneezed. Would it have been worse?

_You're just trying to – achoo! – distract yourself and you know it._

Unfortunately, Hyourinmaru's words, even as sneeze-punctuated as they were, were nothing but the plain, depressing truth.

Hitsugaya ignored him.

After all, he had been in here for _three_ whole days. _I_ do _have every right to complain,_ he thought darkly.

Still ignoring the ice dragon, who now alternated between laughing and sneezing, Hitsugaya forced his mind onto other things. Like how ironic it was that he, the wielder of an ice-element zanpakutou, and the strongest one in Soul Society at that, was suffering from the cold.

Hyourinmaru nodded miserably, prompting another sneeze.

Hitsugaya sighed. It was going to be a _long_ day.

* * *

Outside the door, two people were having a conversation.

"You know what?" began the taller of the two. "If he knows that you had cold medication all along, he's _really_ going to kill you, Unohana-taichou."

The Fourth Division taichou smiled serenely. "He won't, don't worry. It's for his own good, after all. He's been working far too hard. Besides, I can always say that I only just found it now," she added, her smile growing wider. "He's too afraid of the Fourth Division and all it represents to argue with me."

Beside her, Matsumoto suppressed a shudder. The seemingly gentle taichou could be _really_ scary at times.

"True," she muttered in reply.

The pair stood outside in silence for quite some time, observing the room. Condensation had been forming on the outside of the door for two days. Matsumoto thought that she could make out some small icicles too. It probably meant that the temperature in the room was far from normal room temperature and closer to that of the… _wherever it was that those white furry bears lived_ , Matsumoto decided.

She turned back to the person beside her. "How much longer are you going to keep him in there?"

The taichou of the Fourth Division only smiled as she walked away.

As she disappeared from view, Matsumoto took one last look at the door to her taichou's room, then hurried back to start on the paperwork that beginning to pile up on her desk.

She didn't feel like being the object of her taichou's ire when he escaped his forced holiday.

 _If_ he ever did, that is.


End file.
